Small items of research equipment at Durham University

水、食物和能源是人类在地球上生存的基本要求。随着全球人口的增长，对这些资源的需求不断增加，随着国家的发展，对能源的需求也被放大。世界已经变得依赖化石燃料，即煤、石油和天然气等能源密集型材料。从长远来看，继续使用它们不仅是不可持续的，而且使用它们的后果可能会对气候变化和其他污染造成毁灭性的影响。维持现状不是一种选择。为了解决能源和可持续发展等复杂领域的研究，需要跨学科的项目，将个别技术和应用领域的领先专家聚集在一起。由于这是一个快速增长的领域，这是年轻的、早期职业研究人员发光的自然空间，促进这些早期职业研究人员的一种方式是将他们聚集在一起，共享新设备，使新方法培训成为可能，并扩大他们的研究设备基础。我们将利用EPSRC小型装备提案提供的资金，创建小型装备能源与可持续发展基金(SEFES)。达勒姆大学，特别是达勒姆能源研究所(DEI)在这些具有国家重要性的领域进行的研究，提供了可持续的社会技术解决方案，包括最佳、清洁地利用化石燃料等不可再生资源，包括碳捕获和储存，开发可持续的能源材料(例如，基于地球丰富的矿物的太阳能电池)，设计富含石油的新型作物，以及用于生物能源生产的新藻类品种。为了合理地重新布线生物质和石油生产的生物网络，我们的研究开发了系统方法，将实验测量与计算分析相结合。协调能源供应与需求也是我们研究智能(电网)的一个关键领域。在非常规碳氢化合物部门和传统碳氢化合物部门，为能源和化学原料最大限度地提高回收碳氢化合物的产量的研究都有所增加。非常规碳氢化合物是以基质形式存在的石油/天然气资源，从这些资源中提取具有挑战性，或者产量可能较低。因此，这些来源此前被忽视为风险太高或不经济，包括页岩油、重油、页岩气、致密气等。页岩气已导致美国满足国内需求，潜在盈余用于出口。然而，所采用的某些技术，例如水力压裂，一直存在争议，导致某些国家暂停使用和禁止使用水力压裂。达勒姆大学目前正在领导研究，为该部门建立安全的工作实践。授予“小型研究设备”拨款后可使用的仪器将使达勒姆大学和达勒姆能源研究所能够加快由早期职业研究人员在这些关键领域开展的工作，并提供能力，通过我们的多学科能源博士培训中心加强我们本已热衷于培养下一代研究人员的重点。

Water, food and energy are the basic requirements for humankind's existence on planet Earth. As the global population grows there is an ever-increasing demand for these resources and, as nations develop, the demand on energy is magnified. The world has become dependent upon fossil fuels, energy dense materials such as coal, oil and gas. Not only is their continued use unsustainable in the long term but the consequences of their use potentially devastating in terms of climate change and other pollution. Maintaining the status quo is not an option. To address research in the complex fields of energy and sustainability, cross-discipline projects are required that bring together leading specialists in individual technology and application areas. As this is a rapidly growing field, it is a natural space for young, early career researchers to shine, and one way of facilitating these early careers researchers is to bring them together to share new equipment, to enable training in new methods and to grow their research equipment base. We will use the funding provided by this EPSRC small equipment proposal to create a Small Equipment Fund for Energy and Sustainability (SEFES). Research at Durham University, and especially the Durham Energy Institute (DEI), in these areas of national importance delivers sustainable socio-technological solutions including optimum, clean use of non-renewable resources such as fossil fuels, including carbon capture and storage, development of sustainable materials for energy (e.g. solar-cells based upon Earth-abundant minerals), the design of novel oil rich crops, and new algal strains for bioenergy production. In order to rationally rewire biological networks for biomass and oil production, our research develops systems approaches, combining experimental measurements with computational analysis. Harmonising energy supply to demand is also a key area of our research on smart (electricity) grids. Research into maximising the yield of recovered hydrocarbons for energy and chemical feedstocks has grown in both unconventional and conventional hydrocarbon sectors. Unconventional hydrocarbons are oil/gas resources present in matrixes that are challenging to extract from, or may have low yields. As such, these sources have previously been overlooked as too risky, or uneconomic, and include shale oil, heavy oil, shale gas, tight gas etc. Shale gas has resulted in the US meeting domestic use, with potential surplus for export. However, certain of the technologies employed, for example hydraulic fracturing have been controversial, resulting in moratoriums and bans in certain countries. Durham University is presently leading research to establish safe working practices for the sector. The instrumentation accessible following the award of the 'Small Items of Research Equipment' grant will enable Durham University, and the Durham Energy Institute, to accelerate is work in these key areas, delivered by early career researchers, as well as provide the capability to enhance our already keen focus on developing the next generation of researchers through our multi-disciplinary Energy Doctoral Training Centre.